Every one of them was wounded, to one degree or another.

Traveling day and night all these days, they were as worn out as men can get... and their fighting strength was down a long way.

On an ordinary day, killers like these would not have needed Ning Chen to lift a hand.

It was luck that with all of them only the skin was broken, and nothing was mortal.

With what they had, all they could do was bind the wounds up roughly.

"How is everyone?"

Ning Chen said it propped on his rebar in the shade, his back against a tree, exhaustion in his eyes.

The exhaustion could not be seen in his face any longer. Day after day of wind and sun had turned skin that had been fair into something rough and black, as though he had crawled out of a coal pit.

And not only Ning Chen. It was the same for all of them.

Pan Yucheng and the others shook their heads to say they were all right.

What Ning Chen admired was Yue Congyun. A woman, and the whole way she had not once complained.

The handsome girl who had cut such a fine, dashing figure was a burned-dark scrap of a girl now.

Three more days and they would be close to the capital.

But Ning Chen knew the next three days were the most dangerous of all.

They ate something, rested four to six hours, and went on.

"Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!"

The horses ran flat out, and the yellow dust rolled up behind them.

Ning Chen worked at spreading his legs as wide as they would go, to keep the insides of his thighs off the horse's barrel.

It was not a graceful way to sit, but he had no attention to spare for that now.

Three days went by in a blink.

The capital. The imperial palace.

The Xuan Emperor's condition had gone as bad as it could go.

Three days ago His Majesty had been made to faint with rage.

Zisu had spent everything she had to get the…